Raptors 97, Wolves 87: Clever girl…

I don’t want to take anything from the Raptors because they outplayed the Wolves last night. However, I can’t help but feel like Minnesota just gave this game away.

The perimeter defense was spotty, they allowed too many trips to the free throw line, and finished just 12/30 at the rim. Raptors blocked nine shots. The Wolves weren’t strong with the ball around the basket and let Toronto be the aggressor with more energy on both ends of the floor. Execution continues to be a problem for most of the units the Wolves put out there. There are stretches in which the offense is running like a machine. But these stretches need to be extended from minutes to entire quarters.

With that brief little expulsion, here are my grades for last night’s game:

Wesley Johnson, SG19 MIN | 0-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 PTS | -12I’ll give Wes this: His defense was pretty okay in this game. There wasn’t much at the small forward position for him to guard but he had a couple of good possessions against DeMar DeRozan. Wes’ shooting confidence is completely shot. He’s been so bad on offense, I actually got giddy when he passed to a cutter early in the game.

Kevin Love, PF36 MIN | 3-16 FG | 5-10 FT | 14 REB | 1 AST | 13 PTS | -20Kevin Love was completely dominated by Amir Johnson. While Amir Johnson is a pretty decent defender, I’m not sure that should ever happen. He was 1/10 from inside nine feet on the floor. He wasn’t even making free throws. Maybe this compacted schedule is starting to get to him a bit? It’s fun that we can call a 13 and 14 game from him a bad game, but that only matters for our fantasy teams.

Darko Milicic, C18 MIN | 3-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | -11Darko rebounded well when he was on the floor, but he looked completely helpless trying to defend Andrea Bargnani when they were matched up with each other. It was a necessary evil with not wanting Love to tire himself out on defense. And he only missed four of his seven shots in the paint!

Luke Ridnour, PG30 MIN | 6-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 13 PTS | -31Didn’t think Luke ran the team very well to start the game, but he also helped keep them close in the first quarter with a scoring burst of nine points. Luke hasn’t been much of a playmaker this season. His assist rate is at a career-low 20.8%, but he has a career-high 60% true shooting percentage so far. This game was a pretty good showing for those two stats.

Wayne Ellington, G23 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 5 PTS | -21Really enjoy the job Wayne has done as a defender this season. He’s probably too short to be a consistently productive defensive player, but his effort and positioning has been really good. The Wolves still need him to knock down shots though. He wasn’t useless in this game, but he wasn’t meaningful either. He has to make shots to warrant playing over Wes right now, which is kind of a scary thought.

Anthony Tolliver, PF24 MIN | 0-3 FG | 2-2 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS | +14AT once again played a lot of solid defense and was a part of lineups that had positive plus/minus numbers up until the end of the game. It could just be blind luck that AT is on the court at these times, but he’s kind of like the Wolves’ version of Nick Collison. Things just seem to get done. He has to be a threat on the perimeter though. When he gets open looks, they need to go in.

Jose Juan Barea, PG17 MIN | 5-9 FG | 4-4 FT | 1 REB | 3 AST | 16 PTS | +21First game back for JJ was a success. He scored efficiently and helped spark the second unit into making up some ground. However, he dribbled the ball way too much. I don’t mind him handling the ball a lot in pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops, but there are times in which he pounds out the shot clock.

Anthony Randolph, PF15 MIN | 2-4 FG | 5-5 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 9 PTS | +2This is exactly what Anthony Randolph’s role should be on the team. He’s essential the Chris Andersen of the Wolves. Put him in for 10-15 minutes. If he can provide activity and a spark on the floor, that’s great. If not, get him the heck off the hardwood. Loved how aggressive he was around the hoop and didn’t try to do too much with the ball.

Ricky Rubio, PG30 MIN | 2-9 FG | 5-7 FT | 4 REB | 6 AST | 10 PTS | +1That field goal percentage is falling quickly and part of it is Ricky being a little hesitant lately on his scoring decisions. Especially when he went to the basket, Rubio seemed unsure what to do. He had three shots at the rim and three shots at the rim blocked. One of them was possibly him trying to dunk the ball, which would have melted the internet. Overall, his decision-making on offense was pretty good. He’s becoming predictable on crosscourt passes. Scouting could be catching up to him and he needs to adjust.

Derrick Williams, F28 MIN | 4-11 FG | 5-5 FT | 8 REB | 2 AST | 13 PTS | +7Derrick wasn’t a very good shooter in this game, but he had the most shots attempted at the rim since opening night against OKC. He was aggressive and even had a nice pump fake and drive for a vicious dunk. He was also extremely active on the boards and his defense wasn’t bad either. He’s had back-to-back really good games, even though his shot has been off.

Five Things We Saw

14-2 run for Toronto in the 4th. Wolves were up 80-77 after starting the fourth quarter with an 11-4 run. Over the next 6:18 of the quarter, the Wolves missed 10 straight shots. Three of those misses were blocked. Wolves really executed poorly and didn’t go strong to the basket. They let Toronto take control of this game by bullying them.

When the 3s don’t fall… I understand that this team was dead-eye shooting the 3-ball last year and maybe it’s just a bad stretch to start this shortened season. But when the long-range shots aren’t falling, there has to be an alternative. Rubio is driving the lane and the paint is being occupied. When this happens, someone from the weak side needs to be cutting to the basket. Rubio will find them and it will keep the defense honest.

Is it time to go über big? This is probably me just being stupid, but I’d actually love to see the Wolves experiment with a lineup of Rubio-Williams-Tolliver-Love-Randolph for a couple minutes at some point. I don’t see this as a long-term solution because the perimeter defense would be rough. But if they’re rotating and helping, it might provide a decent spark at some point.

Still too many turnovers. 16 turnovers in a 91-possession game isn’t horrendous, but the seven turnovers in the second quarter really kept the Wolves from taking control of this game in the first half. Adelman’s petition didn’t go through yet, did it?

Did Love get worked on the boards? It’s weird to think that Love ending up with 14 rebounds could mean he got worked on the boards, but Amir Johnson grabbed eight offensive rebounds last night. The worst part about it was Kevin being on the floor for every single one of them. This was the first time in a long time I can remember Love not boxing out nearly every time down the floor. He was also slow to get back on defense for a few possessions and Amir took advantage. Too many second chance opportunities for the Raptors.

And here are two of the highlight dunks from last night:

The up-fake and drive by Williams needs to be a staple of his game. Also, really was afraid Randolph blew out his knee. Then I was afraid he knocked himself out on the stanchion. Neither ended up being true. Praise the Tebow he’s okay.

No Responsesso far.

The up-fake and drive by Williams IS a staple of his game… however, it only works when opposing players respect your outside shot, and no 6’9″ SF/PF is going to have the respect of defenses 9 games into his career when he is getting spot minutes. In time, in games where he is hot from the outside, or when he’s earned that respect you will see it a lot more… Just like he did against Duke, after hitting 5 threes in the first half they were running at him, so he was able to do this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmFf4srsiY8

Nice breakdown my man! I think Adelman has seen enough to possibly make some changes at the starting position. I would go as follows:

Love
Williams
Johnson
Rubio
Ridnour

Love can get rebounds like a center and Williams/Johnson can play defense and hit outside shots as well as mid range. Rubio and Ridnour causing havoc in the backcourt running around and getting Rose tired. Why not give it a whirl. You could also do something like:

Randolph
Love
Williams
Barea
Rubio

Either way something needs to be done. Putting Rubio in just to play catch up is getting old. Lets start making these teams catch up to us and getting off to fast starts with Rubios uptemp play.

I was thinking Tolliver as well instead of Randolph, but Ive noticed even last year that Tolliver is not effective if you try to play him over 25 mins a game. He gets sloppy and tired. I like Randolph to start out with an up tempo kind of play to help the team set the tone for the game. Randolph is sickening when it comes to his physical skills and has a nice mid range jump shot. His problem is lack of maturity. He has been playing team ball the last few games and still being able to be himself on the court. Maybe some quality leadership is all he needs to figure things out. They are going to have trouble with Chicago tonight.

I would agree with all of you on these lineups, because when Rubio has been on the floor with these players magic seems to happen more often. I would also like to see Beasley come off the bench as the sixth man which the coach is thinking. This way if we are having a ruff shooting night he can come in and hit some of those shots to bring a spark for us. But I do believe the coach needs to make the change soon with Rubio starting. We r starting to lose games at a fast rate against teams we should be beating.

T-Wolves are horrible. So tired of watching this horrid starting lineup. Rick seems to be trying to get fired ASAP. Same exact worthless lineup from last year that won a whopping 15 games. Wes is garbage and needs to stay off the floor. Darko is garbage and needs to stay off the floor as well. Beasley should be coming off the bench. Actually, Beas needs to be traded asap. Trade him and a few other scrubs for a decent big man or 2 guard. I’m watching them get destroyed by Chitown 38-19. HOW MANY GAMES ARE WE GOING TO LOSE BEFORE RICKY GETS TO START? Ownership is the worst in the NBA. They apparently are allergic so NBA quality starting centers. I think I’m only going to watch the games so I can bitch about how bad they are to everyone around me.